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Except when the North Sea wind was weaker than usual in 2021, triggering an energy crisis that has persisted to this day. This impacted almost the entirety of E
by chelical 5y ago
Except when the North Sea wind was weaker than usual in 2021, triggering an energy crisis that has persisted to this day. This impacted almost the entirety of Europe and led to a spike in gas prices, since, surprise, all the backup plants rely on gas and coal.
- ncmncm 5y agoEvidently you failed to read "redundancy and geographic distribution". That there is North Sea wind power, howsoever intermittent, is a pure good. Tying it into a larger network makes it better. The solution to local deficits is more localities.
- liketochill 5y agoThere is not infinite transmission capacity in all directions. It is difficult to get permission to build new transmission lines, which are also expensive.
- nl 5y agoBuild. More. Transmission. Lines. Transmission lines are not expensive at all compared to nuclear power. This nuclear plant cost $12B and it is a cheap one! Compare that to the SunCable is budgetted at $14B, (AU $20B in the article = US$20B) which is an undersea(!) HVAC cable all the way from Australia to Singapore (3,800km!) AND a 3GW(!) solar farm[1]. By comparison, the distance from Spain to Scotland is 2400km. And when the wind stopped in the North Sea, Spain was setting records in terms of the amount of power generated from wind farms[2] [1] https://www.intelligentliving.co/australian-undersea-sun-cable-power-singapore/ https://www.intelligentliving.co/australian-undersea-sun-cab... [2] https://www.evwind.es/2021/12/03/27-8-of-electricity-came-from-wind-power-in-november-in-spain/83614 https://www.evwind.es/2021/12/03/27-8-of-electricity-came-fr...